Seismic Repair and Strengthening of Concrete Columns with Glass or Carbon FRP

Reinforced Concrete columns or bridge piers can be efficiently strengthened with Glass FRP (GFRP) or Carbon FRP (CFRP). Older (pre-1970s) columns have two major shortcomings; they are inadequately confined (usually a No. 3 or 4 tie placed at a spacing of 12 inches) and the ends of the ties are not properly anchored in the core region. During an earthquake, the ties open and allow the longitudinal steel to buckle, leading to failure of the column.

The viewer is available for free download currently – here (and a package to create these 3D and 4D dynamic maps are available for purchase there also which is probably way more than I will ever have, but its good to know that it exists . . . That’s like the ASTM files that are available for only $10,000 a year that I would love to have – maybe by next lifetime, my note).

Please note, due to an increase in unauthorized downloads, Fledermaus and it’s patches are now available only to customers who hold a valid license. To gain access to the software, please enter the Host ID associated with your Fledermaus license in the field below (Your Host ID is your Ethernet (Mac) address or your dongle Flex-ID. You could check for your Host-ID or Flex-ID in your license file, License.dat.). If you wish to obtain a license to the software, please contact IVS3D.

Download iView4DDownload iView4D, the free viewer for Fledermaus files. (By the way, make sure and check for the 32-or 64 versions for Windows 7.)

Some of the information that can be viewed from Scripps Oceanographic – the Library also has presentation materials, movies, tutorials, and online tools on this page:

Seismic-Eruption is a wonderful program conceived and written by Alan L. Jones at SUNY Binghamton. This program as well as his Seismic Waves program are part of the new Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC which opened September 20, 1997. We use Seismic-Eruption in Show-Me-Geology to demonstrate basic characteristics of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and to engage kids in thought provoking questions.

Below is an example lesson using Seismic-Eruption that was developed for pre-service teachers at SDSU in the Natural Sciences 412D class. There are all kinds of fun informative exercises you can have kids work on with this program. Have fun!

To Start Program:

Go to the Start menu in Windows and select Programs, then Seismology and then “Seismic Eruption” which will launch the program. Press “Go” to begin.

To make choices of views: select a group. The Red Box that says “Back, leads you to previous menus. Most menu options are self explanatory, so when you need to do something look for the options under the various pull down menus. You can turn off the audio using these menus – or turn down the audio volume on your computer monitor if you wish.

Investigations of the World View

Select the “World View”. The program with start running – illustrating where and when earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have occurred around the world. Notice the following:

the time scale bar at the bottom left that shows the dates. How many years is represented in this time sequence? _________

earthquake and eruption counters keep track of the number of quakes and eruptions over time.

How many quakes in this time interval worldwide? _________

How many earthquakes on average each day? __________

How many volcanic eruptions over the entire time interval? _____________

Once the World View sequence has displayed all the quakes and eruptions up to the present time – click on the “Information” button in the lower right of the map window. Use the information there to answer the following questions:

At any particular moment, about how many volcanoes on Earth might be actually erupting lava, pumice or ash? _____________________

Remote sea-floor volcanic eruptions at the mid-oceanic ridges are in most cases difficult or impossible to detect. However, what advanced technology is starting to bring sea-floor eruption sites into the realm of study? _____________________

Investigations of the January 1994 Northridge earthquake

From the “World View” above, select the “Back” button to return to the “World Menu”.

Select “North American Group” from the World Menu.

Select “California Group” from the North American Group.

Select “Northridge 1995 Group” from the California menu.

Select “Northridge California 1995”. The program will start running.

What is the time interval run for the Northridge quake? __________________

How many quakes occurred in this interval of time? ________________

Note that the default speed of the program runs at 5 hours/sec. Adjust this speed so that the program runs at 1 hour/sec and hit the “Repeat” button. Watch carefully as the time of the quake (Jan 17 04:31) approaches. Were there any foreshocks that might have helped seismologists that a major earthquake was imminent? ____________

In the map view, major earthquake faults in Southern California are shown by the blue lines. Does the main shock of the Northridge quake occur on any of these mapped faults?

Where are almost all of the aftershocks of the Northridge 1995 earthquake located relative to the main shock? ______________

Northridge Cross-Section

From the screen above, select the “Back” button followed by “Northridge Cross-Section”. The program will begin – let it run through. This program is showing a cross-sectional view through the Earth which displays the depth distribution of quakes associated with the Northridge event. The default speed is 4 days/sec. Slow this all the way down to 1 hour/sec and play it again – this time examining more closely the pattern produced by the Northridge quake and its aftershock sequence.

At what depth did the main shock occur? ______________

Draw a simple sketch below showing the likely geometry of the fault (note that the shallowest earthquakes DO NOT fall directly on the fault – these are distributed in a group above the fault).

Can you guess what kinds of structures may be associated with the shallowest group of earthquakes?

Senators grill NASA chief on President Obama’s space plan

06:05 PM

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) urged President Barack Obama and NASA to set a goal of getting to Mars as senators lashed the agency chief Wednesday for proposing to end the Constellation rocket program that aimed to return to the moon and to Mars.NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said told a Senate Science subcommittee that he and the White House agreed with the goal of reaching Mars is “the ultimate destination.” But Bolden said he couldn’t set a date for that goal because research funded in the budget needs to find better propulsion and research longer-term space travel on people.

“We want to go to Mars,” Bolden said. “We can’t get there because we don’t have the technology.”

The clash occurred at the first hearing on Obama’s NASA budget released Feb. 1. The budget canceled the Constellation program, which NASA officials said was unrealistic after being underfunded for years.

(etc.) [my note, – and why aren’t they making the new generation of space shuttle system that is needed – what happened to America and our abilities in the space program being first and foremost to national security, to domestic opportunities and to our willingness to pursue science? How do they expect any of us to be inspired to be involved in math, science and technology when every thing that utilizes these things are being discarded and thrown away with nothing short of contempt?]

This image depicting the current El Niño condition in the Pacific Ocean was created with data collected by the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite during a 10-day period centered on Jan. 30, 2010. Image credit: NASA/JPL Ocean Surface Topography Team› Larger view
Climatologists have long known that human-produced greenhouse gases have been the dominant drivers of Earth’s observed warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution. But other factors also affect our planet’s temperature. Of these, the ocean plays a dominant role. Its effects helped nudge global temperatures slightly higher in 2009, and, according to NASA scientists, could well contribute to making 2010 the warmest year on record.

Covering 71 percent of our planet’s surface, the ocean acts as a global thermostat, storing energy from the sun, keeping Earth’s temperature changes moderate and keeping climate change gradual. In fact, the ocean can store as much heat in its top three meters (10 feet) as the entire atmosphere does.

“The vast amount of heat stored in the ocean regulates Earth’s temperature, much as a flywheel regulates the speed of an engine,” said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “The ocean has a long history of capturing and giving up heat generated by both human activities and natural cycles; it is the thermal memory of the climate system.”

Heat and moisture from the ocean are constantly exchanged with Earth’s atmosphere in a process that drives our weather and climate. Scientists at NASA and elsewhere use a variety of direct and satellite-based measurements to study the interactions between the ocean and atmosphere.

“These interactions result in large-scale global climate effects, the largest of which is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation,” explained Josh Willis, a JPL oceanographer and climate scientist. This climate pattern appears in the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every four to 12 years and has a powerful impact on the ocean and the atmosphere. It can disrupt global weather and influence hurricanes, droughts and floods. It can also raise or lower global temperatures by up to 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

The oscillation pattern is made up of linked atmospheric and oceanic components. The atmospheric component is called the Southern Oscillation, a pattern of reversing surface air pressure that see-saws between the eastern and western tropical Pacific. The ocean’s response to this atmospheric shift is known as either “El Niño” or “La Niña” (Spanish for “the little boy” and “the little girl,” respectively).

Where the wind blows

During El Niño, the normally strong easterly trade winds in the tropical eastern Pacific weaken, allowing warm water to shift toward the Americas and occupy the entire tropical Pacific. Heavy rains tied to this warm water move into the central and eastern Pacific. El Niño can cause drought in Indonesia and Australia and disrupt the path of the atmospheric jet streams over North and South America, changing winter climate.

Large El Niños, such as the most powerful El Niño of the past century in 1997 to 1998, tend to force Earth’s average temperatures temporarily higher for up to a year or more. Large areas of the Pacific can be one to two degrees Celsius (around two to four degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, and the average temperature of the ocean surface tends to increase. The current El Niño began last October and is expected to continue into mid-2010. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York estimate that if this pattern persists, 2010 may well go down as the warmest year on record.

El Niño’s cold counterpart is La Niña. During La Niña, trade winds are stronger than normal, and cold water that usually sits along the coast of South America gets pushed to the mid-equatorial region of the Pacific. La Niñas are typically associated with less moisture in the air and less rain along the coasts of the Americas, and they tend to cause average global surface temperatures to drop. The last La Niña from 2007 to 2009 helped make 2008 the coolest year of the last decade. The end of that La Niña last year and subsequent transition into an El Niño helped contribute to last year’s return to near-record global temperatures.

All the ocean’s a stage

Both El Niño and La Niña play out on a larger stage that operates on decade-long timescales. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO for short, describes a long-term pattern of change in the Pacific Ocean that alternates between cool and warm periods about every five to 20 years. The PDO can intensify the impacts of La Niña or diminish the impacts of El Niño. In its “cool, negative phase,” warm water, which causes higher-than-normal sea-surface heights (because warmer water expands and takes up more space), forms a horseshoe pattern that connects the north, west and south Pacific with cool water in the middle. In its “warm, positive phase,” these warm and cool regions are reversed, and warm water forms in the middle of the horseshoe.

Such phase shifts of the PDO result in widespread changes in Pacific Ocean temperatures and have significant global climate implications. During the 1950s and 1960s, the PDO was strongly negative, or cool, and global temperatures seemed to level off. During most of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the Pacific was locked in a strong positive, or warm, PDO phase and there were many El Niños. We are currently in the early stages of a cool PDO phase that began around 2006. Cool, negative phases tend to dampen the effects of El Niños.

Willis said the PDO, El Niño and La Niña can strongly affect global warming due to increased greenhouse gases. “These natural climate phenomena can sometimes hide global warming caused by human activities, or they can have the opposite effect of accentuating it,” he explained.

Wild ride

“These natural signals — El Niños, La Niñas and PDOs — can modulate the global record for a decade or two, giving us a wild ride with major climate and societal impacts,” said Patzert. “They can have a powerful short-term influence on global temperatures in any particular year or decade. This can make it appear as if global warming has leveled off or become global cooling. But when you look at the long-term trend over the past 130 years, our world is definitely getting warmer. And that’s the human-produced greenhouse gas signal.”

Patzert said the recent climate record is like making a drive from the coast to the mountains. “As you rise slowly to higher and higher elevations, occasionally you hit a major speed bump, such as the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, and temperatures spike; or you hit potholes, such as cooler phases of the PDO, and temperatures dip,” he said. “In the end, though, we still tend toward the top of the mountain, and the trend upwards is clear. We are driving ourselves into a warmer world.”

In-Depth: Earth Topics

Global Climate Change

Beginning August 26, 2009, and continuing into September 2009, a large wildfire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles known as the Station Fire burned more than 140,000 acres through September 3. Carbon monoxide in the smoke from this large fire was lofted as high as 8.3 kilometers (27,000 feet) into the atmosphere, where it was observed by JPL’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite.

This movie, created using continuously updated data from NASA’s “Eyes on the Earth 3-D” feature on NASA’s global climate change website, shows three-day running averages of daily AIRS retrievals of the abundance of carbon monoxide present at 5.5 kilometers (18,000 feet). AIRS is most sensitive to carbon monoxide at this altitude, which is a region conducive to long-range transport of the smoke. As the carbon monoxide is lifted by the fire’s heat and blows downwind, it appears in the August 30 AIRS map north and east of the fire as a yellow to red plume that stretches from Southern California across Nevada and Utah.

Fires Around Lake Malawi in Africa

Fires continued to burn around eastern Africa’s Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) on October 13, 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image the same day. The fires were likely set for purposes of agriculture, a common occurrence at this time of year.

Red dots indicate hotspots associated with actively burning . . .

(Slide number 10 in the series found on this page of World fires – South America is generally pretty interesting for burn off fires, too)

A new NASA study indicates that motor vehicles are the greatest contributor to atmospheric warming: They release greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it.

**

NASA Adds Extensive Data to Open Government Initiative Web Site

01.22.10

Learn more about Open Government at WhiteHouse.gov An Earth dataset visualization showing topography with the data overlaid on the Earth found within the The Global Change Master Directory. This catalog of data was created to enable users to access datasets and services relevant to global change and Earth science research. Image Credit: NASA. NASA has contributed a wide range of scientific data to the new publicly accessible Web site “Data.gov” in accordance with the administration’s Open Government Directive issued in Dec. 2009.

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the federal government. Public users may search for information by topic or by accessing the data contributed by any of the 24 participating major government departments and agencies.

The data may be read on line or downloaded to improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations; potentially create economic opportunities; or respond to need and demand as identified through public or industry consultation.

NASA products are in the Tool and GeoData Catalogs. Tool Catalog products include planet counter and climate change widgets and various Earth observation and other analysis utilities. In the GeoData Catalog, the agency posted more than 600 datasets across a wide range of imagery, maps, atmospheric, climate, geological and geophysical data. NASA will continuously update and add new data sets as they become available.

NASA’s submission of an additional 18 catalogs released today is the first milestone within the Open Government Directive. Over the coming weeks, NASA will release a new Web site and provide a platform for public participation and engagement becoming a more transparent, participatory and collaborative agency.

Land surface temperature is how hot the “surface” of the Earth would feel to the touch in a particular location. From a satellite’s point of view, the “surface” is whatever it sees when it looks through the atmosphere to the ground. It could be snow and ice, the grass on a lawn, the roof of a building, or the treetops in a forest. Thus, land surface temperature is not the same as the air temperature that is included in the daily weather report.

An anomaly is when the conditions depart from average conditions for a particular place at a given time of year. The maps show daytime land surface temperature anomalies for a given month compared to the average conditions during that period between 2000-2008. Places that were warmer than average are red, places that were near normal are white, and places that were cooler than average are blue. The observations were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Some land surface temperature anomalies are simply random weather phenomena, not part of a specific pattern or trend. Others anomalies are more meaningful. Widespread cold anomalies may be an indication of a harsh winter with lots of snow on the ground. Small, patchy warm anomalies that appear in forests or other natural ecosystems may indicate deforestation or insect damage. Many urban areas also show up as hot spots in these maps because developed areas are often hotter in the daytime than surrounding natural ecosystems or farmland. Warm anomalies that persist over large parts of the globe for many years can be signs of global warming.

Land Surface Temperature Anomaly

Land surface temperature is how hot the “surface” of the Earth would feel to the touch in a particular location. From a satellite’s point of view, the “surface” is whatever it sees when it looks through the atmosphere to the ground. It could be snow and ice, the grass on a lawn, or the roof of a building. These maps compare daytime land surface temperatures in a particular month to the average temperatures for that month from 2000-2008. Places that were warmer than average are red, places that were near normal are white, and places that were cooler than average are blue. The observations were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly

Sea surface temperature refers to the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean. An anomaly is a departure from average conditions. These maps compare temperatures in a given month to the long-term average temperature of that month from 1985 through 1997. Blue shows temperatures that were cooler than average, white shows near-average temperatures, and red shows where temperatures were warmer than average. Regions for which no data were available are gray. The maps are made from data collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) compared to historical data collected by a series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites.

My Note – this is the crap coming from our cars, jets, trucks, trains and ships into the air we are breathing and across every city and county in America . . . And, that is the problem that is creating the climate change, air and water pollution, mucky brown air over our cities and rural communities where industrial areas are now located, and why walking to the store is as bad as sticking our lungs into the exhaust stream from a car only more so because of the number of cars and concentration of the pollutants on our streets – cricketdiane

EPA has conducted an extensive review of the literature to produce a list of the compounds identified in the exhaust or evaporative emissions from onroad and nonroad equipment, using baseline as well as alternative fuels (e.g., ethanol, biodiesel, compressed natural gas). This list, the Master List of Compounds Emitted by Mobile Sources, and the documentation for the development of the list are available here:

What is EPA Doing About Mobile Source Air Toxics?

In February 2007, EPA finalized a rule to reduce hazardous air pollutants from mobile sources (Control of Hazardous Air Pollutants from Mobile Sources, February 9, 2007). The rule will limit the benzene content of gasoline and reduce toxic emissions from passenger vehicles and gas cans. EPA estimates that in 2030 this rule would reduce total emissions of mobile source air toxics by 330,000 tons and VOC emissions (precursors to ozone and PM2.5) by over 1 million tons.

By 2010, EPA’s existing programs will reduce mobile source air toxics by over one million tons from 1999 levels. In addition to controlling pollutants such as hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides, EPA’s recent regulations controlling emissions from highway vehicles and nonroad equipment also result in large air toxic reductions. Furthermore, EPA has programs under development that would provide additional benefits from further controls for small nonroad gasoline engines and diesel locomotive and marine engines. Finally, EPA has developed a variety of programs to reduce risk in communities, such as Clean School Bus USA, the Voluntary Diesel Retrofit Program, and National Clean Diesel Campaign.

Assessment

Risk

National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment for 1999 includes 177 air toxics, a subset of the air toxics on the Clean Air Act’s list of 187 air toxics, as well as diesel particulate matter, an indicator of diesel exhaust.

Philadelphia Toxic Air Pollutants Risk Reduction Project: EPA and Philadelphia Air Management Services are conducting a joint project called the “Philadelphia Toxic Air Pollutants Risk Reduction Project” to help reduce the threat to their health which Philadelphia’s residents face from exposure to air toxics.

Even while screaming about people who smoke – and how much our government in the US cares about our health – look what every county school system in America is subjecting our children and our communities to breathing knowing what they do –

Health Effects Institute is an independent, nonprofit corporation chartered in 1980 to provide high-quality, impartial, and relevant science on the health effects of pollutants from motor vehicles and from other sources in the environment.

“Engines within the existing fleet will not be subject to the new regulations, yet may remain in operation for another 25 – 30 years.” (despite the knowledge that health damages do occur and particularly more so in “children that breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than do adults.” – from same document.)

(and)

Diesel exhaust contains tiny particles known as fine particulate matter. Diesel engines are one of the largest sources of fine particulate matter, other than natural causes such as forest fires. Diesel exhaust also contains ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and toxic air pollutants. Exposure to these pollutants causes lung damage and aggravates existing respiratory disease. (note – a look at the health effects of the individual toxic pollutants in diesel exhaust fumes which are commonly found in concentration within the school buses reveal a long list of other sicknesses, physical damages, diseases, difficulties and harms that these exhaust fume chemicals are known to cause – which are not listed here on this document, my note.)

Clean School Bus USA is EPA’s national partnership to minimize pollution from school buses. Leaders from corporate America, children’s health, environmental and governmental organizations gather to design a plan to reduce children’s exposure to diesel exhaust by eliminating unnecessary school bus idling, installing effective emission control systems on newer buses and replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with newer ones. For more information contact the Clean School Bus USA Team at (734) 214-4780 or email: CleanSchoolBusUSA@epa.gov.

EPA’s Voluntary Diesel Retrofit Program works to reduce pollution, including air toxics, resulting from existing diesel vehicles and equipment by encouraging fleet owners to install pollution-reducing devices on the vehicles and to use cleaner-burning diesel fuel.

Best Workplaces for Commuters is a voluntary program, now administered by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTER), offering innovative solutions to commuting challenges faced by employers and employees. Reducing vehicle miles traveled is an effective way to reduce air toxics risk in communities.

Health Effects Notebook for Hazardous Air Pollutants

The fact sheets available on this Web page describe the effects on human health of substances that are defined as hazardous by the 1990 amendments of the Clean Air Act. These substances include certain volatile organic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and radionuclides that present tangible hazard, based on scientific studies of exposure to humans and other mammals. There is uncertainty in the precise degree of hazard, and readers are cautioned that the fact sheets may be revised as additional data become available.

About the Health Effects Fact Sheets

List of Health Effects Fact Sheets

The available fact sheets are listed below, alphabetically by chemical name. The list includes the Chemical Abstract Service Number (CAS No.) for each chemical, and the name of an HTML file containing the health effects fact sheet.

The extraordinary available information here about earthquakes, about why columns in concrete slab buildings disintegrate during earthquakes, sometimes during floods and hurricanes as well as from fatigue within the structure, about sources of fires from clear burning the land around the world and community air pollution from and within school buses, temperature charts from the land and the sea provided by NASA and those beautifully conscientiously created 3d graphs of earthquakes probably don’t all seem to go together. But, it seems to me that they do all fit, not only for the things they can teach me about the bigger picture, but also that the problems created by the way we have done things for the past 130 years are more dramatic and pervasive than some simple explanation about CO2 in the atmosphere. To fix these things through geoengineering, geotech, extreme engineering possibilities and with a real confrontation of the actual elements that have been created, is going to take a genuine change in attitude about what is most important – and to change the idea that it must have to be either economics or people? Why can’t it conscionably be both?